Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Matthew 12:31 - The 2 things needed for Repentance and Forgiveness

King James VersionWherefore I say unto you,All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men:Joseph Smith TranslationWherefore I say unto you,All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto menwho receive me and repent.
1. Since we all need to repent and we all need forgiveness I thought we should look at a verse about both. The words come from the One Being who makes these ideas possible, JESUS CHRIST. No JESUS = death and hell and dissolution for everyone. Not a pleasant thought. 2. The words "who receive me and repent" are missing from all other versions of the Bible. Why is that?3. I hypothesize that if you are a powerful church and you want to keep your members giving you their money, you create middle men for them to report to in order to be forgiven. You might have a priest to confess to, or a Bishop, or Branch President. You can then sell indulgences or require tithing of your flock. CHRIST requires only a broken heart and contrite spirit, but no money.4. Satan would like people to believe repentance is not necessary so he had his mortal minions in charge of the Bible texts get rid of this one line of scripture, so it appears that all sin can be forgiven with no effort at all.5. JESUS originally stated very clearly that there are 2 components for forgiveness of sin. Coming to Him is literal. We need to confess our sins to the GOD who worked out an infinite atonement for those sins. We also need to receive him personally by asking Him to come to us. 6. The most critical message of Joseph Smith is not the Book of Mormon, not the Doctrine and Covenants, and not his translation of the Bible. Joseph's greatest legacy is that of asking GOD in faith for forgiveness and information. The first thing CHRIST said to Joseph in their initial encounter ("The first vision" [aptly named since Joseph had others]) was "Joseph, thy sins are forgiven thee."What a declaration! Can you imagine GOD the SON telling you that? It can happen. Give it a try. A teenager pulled it off in 1820. I teach teenagers and they are collectively the most hard-hearted people on the planet. No one thinks they know more than a teenager, and no one knows less.PS- If you want to see the best definition of true repentance I have ever read check out Adrian Larsen's excellent blog at www.totheremnant.com and read his entry from March 12, 2017 "Ask, Seek, Knock, part 4"